By Peggy Sue McRae, Journal conributor

Last week the Mullis Center honored four legacy benefactors during National Estate Planning Awareness Week. National Estate Planning Awareness Week was adopted in 2008 to encourage the public to explore what estate planning is and why it is so vital.

Estate planning is about leaving a legacy. It is what you might call, “getting your affairs in order”. Estate planning is about valuing your assets and deciding how you would like those assets to serve you for the rest of your life and continue to serve after you are gone. What you decide can have a significant impact on a community. If philanthropy is part of your vision, making a charitable gift part of your legacy can be deeply meaningful.

In recent years our community’s senior population has increased dramatically. Today in San Juan County 35.2% of us are over the age of 65. Our senior population has exploded. The Mullis Community Senior Center is working hard to keep up. Luckily for us, engaged senior Georgia Baciu foresaw what was coming. She recognized that it was going to take more than income from rentals and special events to ensure the stability and longevity of the Mullis Center.

Here is what Mullis Center board member David Bayley told me about Georgia. “Georgia Baciu was intimately involved at the Mullis Center since our opening in 2001, first as a long serving board member and eventually as a volunteer Center Manager. Near the end of her life Georgia realized the pressing need for legacy giving, knowing that the Center couldn’t continue without paid staff and dependable operating capital. She organized a professional presentation about estate giving and subsequently led by example, influencing three other women to follow her lead. These four large gifts exponentially increased our operating endowment, allowing semiannual distributions to underwrite operations to this day!”

On October 24, Mullis Center members, friends and supporters celebrated these four women, Georgia Baciu, Dorothy Hepp, Elizabeth Plunkett & Catherine Heckel in appreciation of their significant legacy gifts with a wine and cheese event.

All of us who use the Mullis Center benefit from these legacy gifts. The Mullis Center has always relied on volunteer support and monetary gifts, both large and small, from SJI community members. Whether it’s delivering meals on wheels, working reception or in the kitchen, calling Bingo, becoming a senior center member, making a donation once a year or once a month, or leaving a legacy gift, contributions from the people of this community are both the strength and the identity of the Mullis Center.

We raise a toast to all our supporters!